Saria's Song
by SafireGriffon
Summary: A series of oneshots about our favorite sage! Before, during, and after OoT. Ratings and genres vary from chapter to chapter, so always check the mini summeries! R&R please!
1. Was Once

Title: Was Once  
Genre: General  
Rating: K  
Summary: Saria knows that Link is different from the other Kokiri, because she was there the day he arrived . . .

* * *

"My turn! My turn!" One of the twins (who knew which one?) called when they called out Sam's twentieth swing. "My turn on the swings! Push me! Push me!"

Sam jumped off and Saria and the other twin pushed the girl higher and higher into the air, until she swung nearly even with the branch the swing hung from. They all loved the swing; it was the newest toy that the Great Deku Tree had taught them how to make. Saria had already tried to tell them that if they made more than one swing, they wouldn't all have to wait so long for their turn, but no one wanted to get out of line to start building a new one, so she just sighed and took turns with everyone else.

Her fairy, Leiko, tugged a lock of Saria's hair, "Saria?"

"Hm?" Saria answered, keeping track of the number of swings in her head.

" . . .The Great Deku Tree is calling."

She turned in surprise and had to jump to one side to avoid being hit by the girl's swinging foot. "What?"

"He says it's important. We have to go see him right away!"

"Of course! Um . . ." she turned to the other Kokiri, "The Deku Tree's calling me, so somebody else has to take a turn pushing now. Bye!"

"Hey wait! Saria!" Mido battled himself for a little while between wanting to follow Saria and not wanting to lose his place in line. He finally turned to the boy behind him. "Save my place! If you don't, you'll be sorry!" The kid nodded his assent and Mido took off after the running girl.

"Wait! Hang on!"

She turned, "What?"

"The Great Deku Tree's meadow is sometimes kinda dangerous. It has Deku Babas and stuff. I'll protect you!"

She smiled, "That's okay, Mido, I'm not scared of anything in the Meadow. The Great Deku Tree will protect me! Bye!" She waved over her shoulder as she continued running. Mido just stood, crestfallen. He wanted to see what he'd called her for, but he knew better than to go into the Great Deku Tree's Meadow uninvited. It was a special place. He trudged back up the hill and got back in line for his turn on the swing.

Meanwhile, Saria had hopped over the stepping-stones in the pond and entered the nearly tunnel-like grove of trees that led to the wide-open space that the Deku Tree alone inhabited. She'd seen him before—all the Kokiri had seen him at one point or another—but Saria was called to his meadow more often than anyone. Great Deku Tree had told her that this was because she was different than the other Kokiri.

"Kokiri are not like the children of other races," he had explained to her, when she'd asked why she was different, "They take a much longer time to grow up. A Kokiri, after all, does not become a grown-up Hylian. A Kokiri is actually a baby fairy. That is why each one has a fairy partner to take care of it. When a Kokiri is old enough, it goes back to the Sacred Forest Meadow, and becomes a fairy."

"So . . .someday I'm going to be a fairy?"

"No, Saria. You have already been a fairy. That is why you are so much wiser than the other Kokiri. You spent your time here as a child, and then became a fairy. After you changed, however, you thought you might be more help to the Kokiri if you returned to your original form. I did this for you."

"But, if I did all this, why don't I remember it?"

"When you change forms, it is difficult to retain memories—the experiences of a Kokiri and the experiences of a fairy are very different. But you still retain the wisdom of your fairy form."

She knew this was why it was her job to make sure that the other Kokiri were well taken care of, and why the Great Deku Tree called her to the meadow more than anyone else. But when she came to the Meadow today, she found something that was completely outside either of her experiences.

There was a grown-up lady. She was leaning against the Great Deku Tree's trunk as she sat, asleep.

"What is that?" She asked, unable to restrain her curiosity, but unwilling to walk any closer to the sleeping lady.

"That is a Hylian woman, and the reason that I called you here."

Saria's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. And not just any dinner-plates, but big, grown-up-Hylian-sized dinner plates. "But only the Forest Folk are allowed here!"

"Yes, but this is a special situation."

That definitely piqued Saria's curiosity. Up until now, hers had been the only 'special situation' in this forest. She walked closer to the Deku Tree and sat near a root, leaning one arm on it affectionately. The Deku Tree began to explain.

"The world is not at peace outside this forest; it rarely is. That is why I tell my children to not leave the safety of these trees. A dark force is rising, though it has not yet shown me its face. The fate of this dark force, whether it shall be healed or whether it shall infect the world, depends largely upon each of us. If the peoples stand together during this time of trial, calamity can be avoided, but if we do not help our brothers, we shall each of us fall alone. That is why I ask you, Saria, for your help."

"Of course, Great Deku Tree. How can I help?" Saria pressed her cheek against the root, expressing her willingness as best as she could.

"Then, Saria, take that which the Hylian brought with her, and care for it in her stead."

One of the Great Deku Tree's branches bent low, until it was level with Saria's arms. Huge leaves unfolded, revealing a sleeping infant. Saria looked at it in shock, and then turned back to the sleeping woman near the tree. "But . . .she's his mother . . ."

"She was, Saria," The Deku Tree said gently.

Understanding suddenly dawned on Saria's face. She'd never seen a dead thing before, except for a grasshopper that the ants were already carrying away. But this was a lady, and she was just lying there, sitting against the trunk. She reached out a hand to touch her smooth cheek.

"Don't." The Great Deku Tree said. Then, more softly, "I know death is hard to understand for someone who has never left this forest, but believe me, she will not wake. Take the child."

Saria forced herself to look away from the lady and held out her arms for the child, over half her own size, who stayed mercifully asleep as she carried started to carry him back to her house.

"What is his name, Great Deku Tree?"

The tree looked down upon the child in her arms, the connection between so many forces in this world, and, eventually, between this world and others.

"Link," he answered.


	2. Homesick

Title: Homesick

Genre: General

Rating: K

Summary: The Chamber of Sages just isn't home . . .

* * *

"Gah!" Darunia roared in frustration as he lost yet another hand. "Somehow she's cheating! She's using her secret powers to make the right cards appear!"

Ruto sighed as she handed over her own pile of Rupees. "The Zora dignity _is_ taking quite a beating here."

"The Sheikah don't have special Poker Powers," Nabooru argued, though she couldn't help but think Impa looked a bit too smug to be completely innocent. Perhaps there had been some sleight-of-hand somewhere . . . "Where's the little Kokiri kid?"

"Hm?" Ruto looked up distractedly. "Oh . . .that little girl . . .um . . .Sarah?"

"Saria."

Ruto shrugged, "She said she didn't want to play."

Nabooru looked up for the sun out of habit, before remembering that time was practically meaningless in the Chamber of Sages. "She's been gone for hours. I'm going to go look for her."

Nabooru got up from the table, taking what little money Impa hadn't already won away from her, and wandered out of the living room.

Once there had been more than one Sage, they'd created a sort of "house" in the Chamber of Sages. Rauru had explained that the area would change to meet the needs and desires of its occupants. Since he'd been living alone, the area had turned into something of a bachelor pad, but with the addition of each sage, new rooms had been added, creating a sort of rag-tag mansion. The living room was done in a more-or-less Hylian style (with some heavy-duty furniture for Darunia, and a chair with shorter legs for Saria) since that more-or-less suited everyone, but Ruto's chambers took on a decidedly aquatic feel, and going to Saria's rooms usually required boots and a jacket.

"Saria?" Nabooru called, walking toward the greener area of the Chamber of Sages. She thought she heard a scuffle as she pushed a bit of ivy away from her face, but she couldn't be sure.

"Saria?" She called again, feeling the tile below her feet give way to springing moss. Saria's chamber was directly connected to Rauru's, so she made use of the light to imitate sunlight peeking between branches. Early-morning mist still hung about the ground, though the sunrise had woken Nabooru hours ago. Stone walls, in various states of falling-down, wound their way across the mostly-flat ground. Apparently, this area had been some sort of maze or labyrinth once. Whatever, she didn't have time for this.

The desert native climbed to the top of the wall and navigated across these to a staircase. This time she was sure she heard a sniffle as she walked up the staircase. "Saria? _Bikete_?"

She definitely heard something this time, and picked up her pace, but nothing could have prepared her for . . .nothing. The grass was as green as ever, a log sat on the ground beneath what appeared to be a broken balcony. The ivy still climbed up the stone walls, the sun still shone through the leaves above, the moss was still spongy underfoot. And yet there was a curious sniffling sort of sound echoing in the small chamber.

"Saria?"

The sniffling broke into a full-blown sob, and a broken voice croaked, "Yes?"

Now certain of where the sound came from, Nabooru strode toward the northeast corner, where a small bit of the wall jutted out—whether it had been built that way or whether part of the wall had fallen at one point or another was unclear—and found a Kokiri with a tear-stained face hiding behind it.

"What's wrong?" Nabooru asked, pulling the little girl's green hair away from her face and smoothing it back in as soothing a manner as she knew how.

Saria gulped and wiped her eyes, "I-I-I . . .Link's going 'way!"

It took Nabooru a moment to remember that, yes, Link was the name of that kid who had turned out to be the Hero of Time. "Link isn't going away, Saria. He's helping us bring down Ganondorf, so everything can go back to the way it's supposed to."

"Nooooo," Saria wailed, "He used to live in the Kokiri Forest, but now he grew up and now he can't come back!" This brought on a new wave of tears, during which Saria said some things that were completely unintelligible. Nabooru sat in silence, stroking Saria's hair as she cried, trying to make sense of what the Kokiri had just told her. The kid had grown up in the Kokiri Forest? That explained the fairy. But if he had actually been Kokiri, he wouldn't have grown up . . .so he'd had to leave the forest and come to Hyrule.

"Was he your friend, back in the Forest?"

"Yes," Saria answered, able to control her voice a bit more, though fat tears still ran freely down her face. "He was different, like me. We could be different together. An' I thought . . .when he got a fairy . . .it would mean that the Deku Tree had decided to let him stay forever . . ."

"Oh, _lelita_ . . ." Nabooru sat on the ground beside Saria and pulled her close, "It always hurts to say goodbye. But saying goodbye doesn't mean that you stop being friends."

"I know, but . . .I'll always be like this, and he . . ."

"You have a lot of time before you have to worry about that," Nabooru said. "And, besides, tomorrow's never certain for any of us. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't live today, right? Maybe, since he's Hero of Time and all, you can have him come visit you here."

Saria shook her head, "This isn't like home. There's no birds, no bugs, no fairies, no Skull Kids or Deku Scrubs . . .even the trees don't talk here."

"Trees talk?" Nabooru asked before she could stop herself.

"Usually about things like water and dirt and wind, but yeah, they talk. Just verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry sloooooooooooooooowly," Saria imitated the deep voice of a tree. She smiled sadly, wiping the last of the tears off her face, "I miss talking to the trees."

Nabooru just gave her shoulders another soft squeeze and looked about the clearing again. This time she saw what Saria saw; there was green, but no fairies floating through the air; there was wind, but it carried no birdsong; there was sunlight, but no children playing beneath it. She thought back to her own quarters, the rooms that should have held dozens of Gerudo warriors-in-training standing empty. Pools of water with no little girls splashing in the shallows, no chatting mothers standing nearby. A sunrise that came without the sounds of horses, or armor being put on, or tents being taken down. She leaned her cheek on top of Saria's head.

"I'm homesick, too, kid."


	3. Hopscotch

Title: Hopscotch

Genre: General

Rating: K

Summary: Time is sometimes like a game of hopscotch . . .you bounce a little ways forwards, and then a little ways back.

* * *

Saria lazily tossed the small stone ahead of her, easily skipping on the other chalk-drawn squares, picking up the stone on her way back.

"Good job, Saria!" called Hoshiko, holding up his hand for a high-five.

Saria half-heartedly returned it. "Any of you guys want my rock? I'm gonna quit playing."

"I want it, I want it!" Cried Flora, "It's got a pretty pink stripe in it!"

Saria handed her the rock, and made her way over to the Lost Woods. For some reason, she'd felt more and more drawn to the place over the past few weeks, and for several days she'd done almost nothing but wander through its almost tunnel-like groves. She'd been so restless, she hadn't been able to sleep at night, hadn't been able to sit down and eat an entire meal, hadn't even been able to play any one game for more then ten minutes.

Instead she'd just felt an irresistible draw to the Lost Woods. When she'd asked the other Kokiri about it, they'd just shrugged and said it was a weird place. It didn't matter how far you wandered in there, you always ended up at the beginning again. For a little while, there had been contests to see who could get the farthest before getting lost, but the other children had lost interest fairly quickly and had gone back to their old games.

She wandered the old passage-ways, getting more and more turned around, but never reaching any sort of end, and never finding her way back to the start. The woods grew darker as the sun dipped below the tallest branches, and still she could not find her way to anything familiar. She continued to wander, even as the moon rose and shone overhead, until it, too, dipped below the tops of the trees.

She finally stopped next to a tall tree, sitting and leaning her back against its comfortingly-rough bark.

_Sleep, little one_, Saria thought she heard a voice whisper to her. _Sleep, Saria, sleep._

It was very comfortable on the soft grass at the base of this tree. Saria yawned. She'd lie down for just a little while . . .just until she was rested enough to find her way back out of these woods . . .

Had anyone been there to watch, they would have seen an adorable picture. A little girl, lying with one arm curled beneath her head, beneath the gently drooping branches of some sort of willow, fast asleep. The moon no longer shone down upon the clearing, but it was well lit just the same, with fairies. There was first just one, Leiko, whom Saria had brought with her, but soon, others appeared. Green, blue, yellow and pink, all illuminating the young girl's face.

_Welcome, Saria._

* * *

When Saria first woke, she did not open her eyes. It felt too nice and comfy here . . .she snuggled back down into the covers. Wait. She hadn't fallen asleep in bed. Even if she had, it wouldn't be this soft. She'd fallen asleep . . .in the woods. Out in the Lost Woods! She started noticing another odd feeling, too, as if her head was floating above her body.

'Is this what they call feeling light-headed? Maybe I got sick from sleeping out here . . .'

She blinked her eyes open, rubbing the sleep away from them, and noticed right away that she was not in the woods. At least, not any part of the woods that she had seen. She was in a small, round room made of stone. There were no windows or doors, except for the opening of this tiny cave, which let in a sort of light that didn't seem to belong to either the sun or the moon. She lay one hand on the bed to stand up and, feeling it's curious texture, looked down and noticed a few very unusual things.

Firstly, the bed seemed to be made out of one half of an enormous deku nut, curved almost into a perfect circle with rounded sort of points at either end, and looked as though it had been filled with gigantic dandelion fluffs. But neither of these things were what she was chiefly concerned with. Her hand was the green of new leaves, and it was _glowing_.

"Kyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!"

Her little legs took her straight out the little cave and straight into . . .nothing. Robbed of her breath, Saria just crossed her hands in front of her face as she plummeted to the stone floor below. Luckily, she was saved, landing on a somewhat-yielding peach surface only slightly larger than herself. She raised herself on her hands and knees and saw before her four prongs leading off, curved and close together. One separated itself, and she grabbed it to right herself.

"Are you alright, little one?"

She turned around and saw that she was actually standing—barefoot. Where had her shoes gone?—on the palm of a giant hand, and was looking up into the face of a young lady with long blonde hair.

She managed to nod, despite her shock, "Where am I? What's going on? Who are you?"

The young woman smiled, "My name is Elonwy, but you can call me Big Sister, Saria."

"How do you know my name?" Saria asked, a little shy.

"We always know the names of our children, Saria, and the Kokiri are our children. It is true that the Kokiri stay children for a very long time, but they do grow up eventually. Only, they don't grow up the same way that Hylians, or Zora, or Gorons do. A Kokiri is actually an infant fairy. When a Kokiri grows up, it becomes a fairy!"

"So . . .I'm a fairy, now?" Saria asked, moving forward, hugging Elonwy's thumb. "Yes. You'll get the hang of those wings soon enough. Perhaps it will make you feel more at home to have your companion with you?" Elonwy raised her other hand and beckoned to another one of the small caves, which Saria could now see completely honeycombed the walls of the fairy fountain, and a fairy floated forward.

"Leiko!' Saria called joyfully.

And so it was, but looking very different then she ever had. Instead of being a ball of pink light and wings, she actually had discernable features. More specifically, she had blue eyes, a pert little nose, and pink hair flowing down to the small of her back, with short bangs in the front.

"Oh my gosh! Saria! You look so gorgeous!" Leiko chattered, flitting about her as she stood in Elonwy's palm, "Doesn't she look beautiful, Big Sister?"

"Yes, she does," Elonwy answered fondly.

"But, I don't understand . . .if the Kokiri are baby fairies . . .does that mean I'm grown up, now?"

"Well, sort of," Leiko wrinkled her nose when she smiled. Saria never knew that she did that. "You're kind of a teenager, I guess. See, it goes like this," Leiko started counting on her fingers, "Kokiri, Fountain Fairy, Guardian Fairy, Big Brother or Big Sister, Great Fairy. You're a Fountain Fairy right now."

"Oh . . ." Saria answered, feeling even more small and lost. Yesterday, she'd been the most grown-up of the Kokiri. Today, she was like a baby all over again, not knowing anything.

"Don't worry about being young, Saria," Elonwy consoled her, "We were all of us young once. I myself am many decades away from being a Great Fairy."

"How old are you?" Saria asked.

"3,749!" Elonwy smiled brightly. Saria's eyes must have bugged out of her head.

"But don't worry," Leiko stroked Saria's arm comfortingly, "Childhood flies so fast . . .I still remember my centuries as a Fountain Fairy . . ."

* * *

Saria sighed, swinging her feet from her perch atop the tree house where Billy had once lived. Billy was a fairy now, just like her. She'd felt bad about forgetting him when she'd first found him again in the Fairy Fountain. He'd been really restless the last few days before he'd disappeared, too, and had wandered into the Lost Woods, never to wander back out. The Kokiri, including herself, hadn't even been frightened by that; they'd just forgotten about him. He'd waved off her apologies.

"You were just a baby, so I can't hold that against you. Just don't expect any of the Kokiri to recognize you when you go back as a ball of light. Besides, by the time you're old enough to be a Guardian Fairy, it'll be a whole different group of Kokiri in there."

Billy had been right; none of the Kokiri recognized her when she returned. They couldn't even hear her voice—they'd needed their own Guardian Fairies to translate. And the Guardian Fairies either couldn't, or wouldn't, explain to the Kokiri that this little ball of light was their old friend, Saria.

She sighed again. It's not that it wasn't fun being a fairy. She was beginning to wonder how she'd ever gone without flying, and there were always plenty of other fairies to play with. But she missed being a Kokiri. She missed her friends, she missed swimming (couldn't do that with wings), she missed laying on the ground and feeling the grass tickling her face. She missed talking to trees . . .

"That's it!" She stood up. "I'm going to go talk to the Great Deku Tree!" Flitting her way over through the Kokiri village, she went, for the first time since she was given her name, to the Great Deku Tree's Meadow.

"Great Deku Tree!" She called with her shrill little voice.

"Saria," his branches swayed in response, "What bringeth thee to me?"

"Great Deku Tree . . .I . . .I miss being a Kokiri."

The Great Deku Tree looked about as concerned as a tree can look. "It is the natural way of things to change and to grow."

"I know that, Great Deku Tree . . ." Saria's wings drooped sorrowfully.

"However . . ." He sighed, settling with a creak upon his roots, "There is a power in you . . .a difference."

"A difference?"

"Yes . . ." the Great Deku Tree spoke, "I remember feeling this strength when you were first born, here in this meadow . . .I thought it might be the power to make you a Great Fairy . . .but, perhaps that power should be channeled somewhere else . . ." He seemed to sit in thought for a time. Saria nearly opened her mouth several times, but didn't want to be rude. Just as she was giving up on being polite, and about to ask if he had fallen asleep, he spoke again. "Wouldst thou like to be a Kokiri again?"

She jumped in mid-air, "Oh, yes, Great Deku Tree! I would, I would!"

His branches made a sort of nodding motion, "I can feel . . .the aura of this world is changing . . .perhaps I will need you here as a Kokiri."

"Oh! Thank you!"

"Go into my branches. Find the largest leaf you can."

She flew up to the Great Deku Tree, landing on one of his limbs and climbing out to the edge, where she could see a leaf the size of a Kokiri bedroll. "This one?" She asked, jumping up and down on it to give the Great Deku tree an idea of where she was.

"Yes, that one will do. Sit still." He moved the little twig until the leaf snapped off and went fluttering down to the forest floor, Saria on top like it was a flying carpet from a fairy tale.

"Now what?"

The Great Deku Tree reached down a branch and folded the leaf in half over her, "Sleep, Saria."

"But I'm not . . ." she yawned and fell asleep almost immediately.

" . . .And when you wake, you will be a Kokiri again. Leiko . . .come hither . . ."

Saria awoke the next morning, and found herself wrapped in one of the Great Deku Tree's leaves. "How did I get here?"

"Last night, you felt restless, so you asked to sleep here," yawned Leiko, who had awakened with her.

"Did I?" Saria looked around. She'd remembered she'd been feeling restless but . . .she could have sworn she was forgetting something. It must have been a dream. A dream about a place where there'd been the most beautiful light . . .she'd been flying . . . "I guess I did. Well, I feel much better, now. Thank you, Great Deku Tree!"

"You are most welcome, Saria."

She dusted herself off and ran out to play.

"Where've you been, Saria? We haven't seen you in forever!" Mido said, from his spot in hopscotch.

Saria just shrugged, found a pebble on the ground and joined back in the game.


	4. Shooting Star

Title: Shooting Star  
Author: Aries28  
Genre: Drama/Tragedy  
Rating: T  
Summary: She knew it would happen someday, but that didn't mean she was ready for it.

* * *

She hadn't been able to believe it. It had been sudden, but sudden had almost been expected, what with the way Link lived, going from one death-defying adventure to the next. Still, she hadn't been ready. 

She hadn't believed it when the messenger had come from the royal palace to inform her. She hadn't believed it when she'd met the other sages in the Sanctuary of Light, and all of them had the same miserable look on their faces. She hadn't believed it when Zelda welcomed them to the palace, the entire place draped in black, the royal flag at half-mast. She hadn't believed it when that same Queen of Hyrule made a big speech, or when she'd thrown the first handful of earth over a casket that they'd all known to be empty—he'd been too far away to bring back here.

She didn't believe it even now, and that's why she hadn't cried, not once. Everyone was so ridiculously cautious when they spoke to her. She wanted to tell them all to wipe the frowns off their faces, to get rid of all the ludicrous black hangings, and to stop treating her like she was made of glass. He wasn't dead. There was no way to be sure, anyhow, he was so far away right now. But he'd be back. He was sometimes gone for really long periods of time, but he always came back. This is where he grew up after all.

All the ceremonies were over now. Saria had been the first to leave Hyrule's capital and go back home. The others had been worried about her, particularly Nabooru, to whom she had confided her fears so long ago. But there was really nothing to worry about; she couldn't grieve, because he _wasn't_ dead.

It was a relief to be back in the Kokiri Forest. None of the other Kokiri ever talked about Link, most because they honestly didn't remember him. The one person that did would never mention him because he saw the man as his rival, romantically and otherwise. So Saria just went back to her normal life, watching over the other Kokiri, playing music with the skullkids, keeping an eye on the Forest Temple. Almost a full month went by before the Deku Tree called her.

"Saria, doest thou know why I have called thee here?"

She shook her head, "No, Great Deku Tree."

He moved his branches unbelievingly (Saria was well-versed by now in tree-speak), "Truly?"

"Is it . . ." her voice trembled, "About . . . .Link?"

His leaves moved in a quiet affirmation. Saria let loose a broken sob, falling to the ground, holding her arms to her as though she would break apart.

"NO! He's not . . .He isn't . . .!"

"Saria, I understand that it is difficult to—"

"He's not, he's . . .how do you know, anyway? He's not really one of your children! You're not connected to him like you are to us! You don't _know_!"

He waited for her to finish her outburst, and calmly continued, "But Navi _does_, Saria. He's gone."

Saria, feeling incapable of even standing, drug herself to one of the Great Deku Tree's roots, holding on desperately, letting her tears soak into his rough bark. He was gone. The boy who had been her son, her brother, her playmate, and her first crush, killed on some foreign shore, far from home. Far from his mother/sister/friend, who would have held him, and brushed his hair out of his face, just as she'd done when he ate too many berries and made himself sick (he did it at least once every summer, seeming to forget the illness of the year before).

They were supposed to have years left. He'd gotten his first gray hair only about a year before, the last time he'd visited them. It had been a cause of great mirth for those that shared his mortality; Zelda and Nabooru had laughed and called him an old man. Saria had felt a tremendous sinking in her stomach at seeing that one gray hair standing out against the brown of his gloves. But one gray hair didn't mean old age—they still had time.

Why had he gotten killed this time, when he'd been through so much else? Were the reaction times slower now? Had it been that shoulder (it had given him trouble ever since that one ill-aimed swing with the hookshot)? What had it been that had taken him away from her, long before his time?

If the Great Deku Tree said anything, she didn't listen. Leiko, her fairy, was blessedly silent as well. They simply allowed her to cry. And cry. And cry. It felt like her entire body was just made out of water. She lost track of the time, but she kept sobbing until her throat was too sore to cry anymore, until her arms just hung on the large root out of habit, and she fell, boneless, across it.

She didn't remember how she got to bed that night, only that as she lie there, feeling just too distant and tired to handle the overwhelming grief that had stuck her in the Great Deku Tree's meadow, she remembered Zelda's speech, a speech that she thought she hadn't even bothered to listen too.

"Link was our guiding star. No matter what the trial, he always shone so bright, for the rest of us to follow. Not only did he show his own light to us, but he encouraged our lights to burn brighter as well. Perhaps he knew, somehow, that he wouldn't always be here to guide us. You were our shooting star, carrying all our hopes and dreams with you. I will not say "farewell," I will only say, "Until we meet again." That's when she'd thrown the first handful of earth over that empty coffin.

She'd always had her doubts, over whether or not any of them had been fair to Link, asking him to do so much. He'd never complained, but she'd seen the weariness in him. Just a smile from him had been enough to make her forget her own worries as the Sage of Forest, and the ever-increasing time between his visits. Had there ever been anyone who did that for him? But he'd loved them; of that she was certain. And he'd loved life, despite what it threw at him. Feeling a preternatural sense of calm, she walked over to her window and picked out the Northern Star, winking down at her. She smiled.

"Until we meet again, Shooting Star."

* * *

In Memory of Jim Liu  
1986-2006 


End file.
